One of the long existing nuisances for painters, and particularly painters of less expertise than others, is that the upper rim of the paint can, which conventionally includes an annular channel for receiving the lid, soon becomes filled with paint making replacement and removal of the lid extremely difficult. Additionally, overflow paint runs down the sides of the can to the bottom, where it flows onto any surface on which the can may be resting.
Some attempts have been made to alleviate this problem as evidenced by the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,744,671; 3,727,792; and 3,469,735. Such attempts, while protecting the rim of the paint can sufficiently enough by a covering member or shield, have provided less than satisfactory wiper or skimmer elements for removing the paint. One of the problems is to quickly remove the fresh paint from the skimming element, so that paint will not build up thereon and it will be relatively free of paint by the time the brush is again pressed against it for a successive skimming operation.
Further, in the skimming operation with some known shield members, where the brush is actually moved against the main portion of the shield, paint is caused to flow back beneath the lip of the shield into the rim of the can, or else to flow down the outside portion of the shield and get on the outside of the paint can, from whence the paint flows down onto the surface supporting the can.